


Free Sample?

by maeung



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, It's all fluff, M/M, dojae work at a supermarket, lumark deserves the world, taeyong is a health nut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 06:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17616938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maeung/pseuds/maeung
Summary: Mark Lee is just trying to help his brother out by selling his organic, all-natural, vegan, non GMO, gluten-free kombucha. Wong Yukhei is a college student who survives solely off of Cheetos and Hot Pockets, but buys a bottle everyday.





	Free Sample?

“Jesus Christ Taeyong, you’re insane.” Mark stares in horror at the amount of fruits and vegetables covering the white granite countertop in Taeyong’s kitchen. Taeyong looks up and glares at him.

“He’s not wrong babe.” Taeyong turns to redirect his glare at his boyfriend. Yuta chuckles and backs up, hands in the air. “I’m just saying.”

“You two are both being very rude,” Taeyong says, “I’m starting a business over here and you two are just judging me.”

Mark looks skeptically at a glass bottle, reading the label that says  _ TY’s Organic Kombucha _ . “Is this a business or another one of your weird ass health phases? Remember when you only ate grapes for two weeks straight?”

“The grape diet was supposed to cure cancer!” Taeyong says defensively.

“Tae, you don’t have cancer,” Yuta helpfully supplies.

“So? It might’ve helped me with other things.”

“It made your cum smell like grape juice for a month.”

Mark gags. “Dude, I really didn’t need to know that about my brother.”

“Yuta,” Taeyong whines, “I really didn’t need my brother to know that about me.” He flushes bright red while Yuta laughs. Taeyong busies himself with cleaning some of the kombucha bottles meticulously.

“What even is kombucha?” Mark asks.

“A dumbass health drink,” Yuta says.

“A fermented tea drink. It’s flavored with fruits and vegetables and has a lot of probiotics. Plus it’s vegan.”

Mark cracks open a bottle and sniffs it. “Fermented? Does that mean it has alcohol?”

Taeyong hesitates, “it does, but very little. Like .5%, you’d have to drink a lot to get drunk.”

Mark’s eyes widen, “can I try now?”

Taeyong snatches the bottle away. “No! You’ll get sick.”

“But what about the probiotics-” Yuta starts but stops when faced with Taeyong’s glare.

“So what do you want me to do?” Mark asks.

“Just help me out for a few weeks.” Taeyong says, “the local supermarket, J&K, agreed to sell my kombucha. I just need someone to man the display table, tell people about the health benefits, hand out free samples and whatnot while I’m busy with making the kombucha.”

“And you want me to do it?” Mark asks.

“Not all the time. Sometimes I’ll do it and Yuta is also helping out. I just need you to sit there sometimes if neither of us can make it.”

“Will I get paid?”

Taeyong rolls his eyes, “yes Mark, we all know you’re a broke college student. Here, we’ll pay you commission for every bottle you manage to sell.”

Mark snags the bottle back from Taeyong, opening the bottle and trying a sip. It’s not unpleasant, but Mark’s not sure how he feels about it. “Sure, I guess.”

“Thank god!” Taeyong grins, “if you hadn’t done that we would’ve had to ask Johnny, and knowing him, he would probably just leave in the middle of his shift to sext Taeil.”

“Yeah at least Markiepoo here doesn’t have anyone to sext,” Yuta says and ruffles Mark’s hair.

“Fuck off Yuta.”

  
  


Working at J&K for Taeyong’s weird health drink company wasn’t that bad. He became friends with one of the managers, a man by the name of Jung Jaehyun. They developed a routine, Jaehyun would walk over under the guise of trying a sample, Mark would complain about college, and Jaehyun would unleash his pining thoughts on Mark.

“-oh my god, have you even seen Doyoung today?” Jaehyun whispers, glancing over at where the assistant manager is helping Jeno, a cashier and one of Mark's friends, fix a jammed cash register. “He looks so fucking good.”

Mark looks over to where Doyoung is bent over, his khakis stretching tight across his thighs. Jaehyun almost cries.

“I just wish I could-”

Mark tunes Jaehyun out, glancing up. His display table is directly across from the frozen meal and snack section, and there was many a day when Mark would gaze longingly at a bag of pizza rolls while sadly sipping on pear juice and apple extract kombucha. Today, the store was pretty empty, it being a Wednesday at 2 in the afternoon. However, there was one figure who was walking aimlessly down the freezer lined aisle, making his way slowly toward Mark.

“Hello sir,” Mark says, waving Jaehyun away. “Would you be interested in a free sample today?”

The man’s ears perk up at the word ‘free’ and Mark realizes that he’s most likely a college student, too. “What is it?” the man asks. He’s tall, ridiculously tall, has big ears and lips, and short dark hair pushed off of his face.

Mark decides that he’s pretty cute. “Kombucha.”

The man’s face twists, “what the fuck is that?”

“A fermented tea drink, sir. It comes in all flavors, no artificials. It’s high in probiotics and antioxidants-”

The man scoffs, “that sounds awful.”

“It isn’t,” Mark says and gestures to the tray of Dixie cups infront of him. “Try some.”

“I’m good,” the man says, “I’m a broke college student, I live off of hot cheetos and foods I can microwave.”

_ Fucking same _ , Mark thinks. “I guess you could microwave kombucha.”

The man rolls his eyes, “it’s just some dumb overpriced health drink that doesn’t even work.”

Mark narrows his eyes. Him and Yuta are allowed to make fun of Taeyong’s creations but not this random stranger, “you don’t have to buy it.”

The man glares back, “no, fuck you. I’ll buy it.”

Mark blinks, “I’m sorry, what?”

“I’ll buy the fucking kombucha,” the man says, “I’ll try it and then prove to you that it’s dumb.”

“Uh, okay?” Mark doesn’t really follow the man’s logic, but he’ll agree for the sake of a sale. “What flavor?”

“What one are you drinking right now?” The man points at the open bottle next to Mark.

Mark glances down at the purple drink, “mixed berries and kale.”

“I’ll have that. Sounds disgusting.”

Mark picks up a bottle, “thanks, uh-”

“Yukhei,” he says, and tucks the bottle under his armpit. “Thanks,” Yukhei glances down at Mark’s nametag, “Mark, I’ll see you around and tell you how much I hate this shit, okay?”

Mark nods, watching Yukhei turn around, carrying his bottle of organic, all-natural, vegan, antioxidant and probiotic boosting kombucha toward the registers. On the way, he pauses, stops and grabs a box of hot pockets, and then he’s gone, having turned toward the cereal aisle and away from Mark’s perspective.

  
  


Mark learns that Yukhei has three names. While describing the weird situation to his friends, one of them, an art major named Huang Renjun, knew exactly who he was talking about. “Wong Yukhei, but most people call him Xuxi or Lucas. He’s from Hong Kong, and I think he’s a geography major. He’s friends with Sicheng.”

“Well can you tell Sicheng that his friend is weird?” Mark snorts.

It’s been a few days since Yukhei rudely purchased a bottle of kombucha from Mark, and he hadn’t heard anything since. So it’s a bit of a shock when  (while Mark was listening to Jaehyun complain about how tight Doyoung’s jeans were,  _ again _ ) Yukhei marches up to Mark’s display table and sets the empty glass bottle against the tablecloth with a thunk. Mark looks up and asks, “how was it?”

“Horrible,” Yukhei says. “I could barely finish it so I mixed it with some Monster and then chugged the rest.”

“Sounds fun. Maybe it made the Monster healthier.” Mark enjoys the way Yukhei scowls at him.

“I don’t even fucking want to be healthy.”

“It’s not that bad,” Mark says.

Yukhei rolls his eyes, “for you, I bet you only eat a diet of organic natural greens like spinach and blades of grass.”

“Maybe,” Mark shrugs. Yesterday he had an entire meat lovers pizza, but he wasn’t going to tell Yukhei that. “Well I’m sorry you didn’t like it.”

“Me too,” Yukhei states, “I’ll have another bottle.”

Mark sputters, “what? Why?”

“So I can confirm that I hate it. What flavor are you drinking today?”

“Apple and spinach.”

“Give me one of those.” Mark wordlessly hands over a bottle to Yukhei, and he tries to ignore the jump in his heart when their fingertips touch. “Thanks. I’ll be back.”

  
  


“Jaehyun, you know you should really tell him-” Mark is interrupted by a loud crunching sound. He looks up, and sighs when he spots Yukhei again.

He’s standing next to the display, a pyramid of bottles Taeyong worked for hours to set up. Yukhei is glaring at a bottle of pineapple coconut kombucha like he wants it to die. Today, he’s carrying around an open bag of flamin’ hot cheetos, his fingers covered in the signature red dust.

“Hello Yukhei.”

“Hey Mark,” Yukhei says, and shuffles to stand in front of Mark. “Want one?” He holds the bag out for Mark.

Mark eyes the bag.  _ Oh what the hell _ , he thinks and dives in for a handful. “Thanks,” he says around a mouthful of red curls. “How was your apple spinach kombucha?”

“Disgusting. I fed it to my dog, and when he didn’t want it, I gave it to Chenle.”

“I have a friend named Chenle.”

“About 5’9”? Chinese? Loud? Has a laugh that makes you feel like you’re in Sea World?”

“Yeah I think that’s him.” Mark nods.

“Small world.” Yukhei hums. “So you go to SNU too?”

“Yeah,” Mark says, “music major.”

“Oh sweet. I’m a geography major.”

“That’s pretty cool. Why’d you pick that?”

“I always wanted to be an explorer,” Yukhei shrugs, “now I’m just learning about the land I would’ve traveled. You know, if it was still the 1490s and no one knew the Americas existed.” Yukhei laughs, “but anyways, what’s on the kombucha menu today?”

Mark looks down at his bottle, ginger root, asparagus, and white grape.

Yukhei groaned, “how can that even taste good?” He stuffs a handful of Cheetos into his mouth.

“It doesn’t, actually.” Mark admits.

“Ha!” Yukhei crows, celebrating his victory.

“But it’s like the most healthy juice out of all of these.”

“I bet it tastes like ass.” Yukhei says, grabbing a bottle from the top of the kombucha display. “And I can speak from first hand experience on that,” Yukhei winks and walks away, laughing.

Mark refuses to acknowledge his blush.

  
  


“Did it taste like ass?” Mark asks Yukhei, who is leaning against the display table. He’s been sitting there for a few minutes, playing a dumb game on his phone.

“Huh?” Yukhei looks up, the tiny character on his screen dying immediately.

Mark rolls his eyes, “the kombucha. Did it taste like ass?”

“Ass tastes better,” Yukhei says, “wanna try?” He wriggles his eyebrows and Mark wants to die.

Jaehyun is sorting through a pile of cereal boxes to the left of them, but he stands up at Yukhei’s words. “I’m sure he would.”

“Dude!” Mark hisses, grabbing a box of Captain Crunch and smacking Jaehyun’s stomach with it. He ignores Jaehyun’s groan, “don’t insinuate that I want to eat someone’s ass.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Yukhei says lowly, and Mark feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“Uhh,” he says intelligently.

Jaehyun snickers, “oh what’s that? I think I hear Doyoung calling me. Gotta go kids!”

Mark watches Jaehyun walk away in sorrow. “As if he would ever call you!” He yells and Jaehyun flips Mark off behind his back.

“So, what do you say?” Yukhei asks and Mark turns his eyes back to the tall man.

“What?” Mark asks.

“To the suggestion from earlier.”

“What suggestion?” he plays dumb.

Yukhei rolls his eyes, “I’m trying to ask you out.”

Mark’s face turns red, “I thought you were asking me to eat you out.”

Yukhei winks, “we’ll get to that later.”

_ System Failure. Please Reboot. Wee oo wee oo! _ Mark blinks.

“So? Will you go on a date with me Mark?”

Mark isn’t sure what to do. So instead he does the one thing he knows he’s not supposed to do. “Today’s flavor is cherries and almond!” He bursts out and shoves a bottle of red liquid into Yukhei’s hands.

Yukhei’s shoulders drop. “Oh,” he says, “thanks I guess.” Then, Yukhei turns around and walks to the cash registers, footsteps heavy.

Mark almost asks him to stay back, but instead he looks up at the bright fluorescent lighting of the store.  _ God, why am I such a fucking coward _ ?

  
  


Yukhei doesn’t show up the next day Mark is working. He tries to ignore it, but he still feels like he’s missing something. Whether that something is a 6 foot tall man with an extremely unhealthy diet is something Mark refuses to acknowledge.

  
  


Mark wakes up sick. “Sorry Taeyong, I feel really shitty right now,” Mark groans, his head pounding. “Hyuck just went out to grab me some soup.”

“Aw, Markie,” Mark can feel Taeyong trying to astral project his love of Mark through the phone, “I’m so sorry to hear that!”

“I’ll be better in a day, I swear. Sorry for just calling off like this.”

“Oh it’s fine! I can drag Yuta to the store and we’ll man the sample table!”

“Thanks,” Mark says groggily.

“Don’t forget to eat healthy foods!” Taeyong says, “oh, maybe you should try that grape diet!”

“Oh no, it’s really fine-”

“Baby,” Mark can hear Yuta whine through the phone, “remember what I told you? There’s some wild side effects of that diet, like your grape juice flavored seme-”

“Shut up about that Yuta!” Taeyong says quickly, and Mark can hear the sound of some shuffling in the background, “Mark, I’m telling you that diet really works.”

Mark isn’t sure how to tell him brother that he doesn’t believe him. “Tae, you really don’t-”

“I’ll come over after my shift to bring you grapes!” Taeyong says, determined. “Bye Markie, feel better!” Taeyong hangs up. Mark sighs.

  
  


Taeyong flies into his dorm room, opening up the mini fridge. Donghyuck, Mark’s roommate, looks up and his eyes widen. “Holy shit Taeyong!”

True to his word, he’s carrying an entire canvas tote bag filled to the brim with bunches of organic grapes. Yuta follows behind him, carrying another one. “Okay so just make sure to drink a lot of fluids and also eat these. They’ll make you feel better! Grapes have a lot of antioxidants-”

“Babe,” Yuta sighs, “let Mark rest.”

Taeyong looks nervously between Yuta and Mark, who’s currently lying on the bed, wet towel on his face. “But what if-”

Yuta steers Taeyong out of the room, “he’ll be fine. Let’s just get out of his hair for a bit.” The door closes behind them.

“Oh my god,” Donghyuck says, looking into their mini fridge, “he really went all out.”

“He always does.” Mark sighs.

The door opens again, and Taeyong pokes his head in. “Oh, by the way, someone came by and asked for you today. Said his name was Yukhei and that he wants to talk to you about something. Okay, okay Yuta! I’m leaving!” Taeyong says, getting pulled away from the door.

Donghyuck’s head whips around and he stares at Mark. “Yukhei? As in that guy who you had an argument with about Taeyong’s weird health drink? Also as in Wong Yukhei, one of the cutest guys on campus?”

“Yeah,” Mark says, and rolls over on the bed to look at Donghyuck, towel falling off of his face.

“What does he want with you?”

Mark looks down, picking at his dirty sheets, “well, he’s been buying kombucha off of me.”

“And,” Donghyuck rolls his eyes, gesturing for Mark to continue.

“He asked me out a few days ago?”

A wide grin spreads across Donghyuck’s face, and he squeals, “Wong Yukhei asked you out? Oh my god what did you do? You said yes right?!”

Mark flushes, “not really-”

“What?! How could you do that? What the fuck Markles?”

“I kind of panicked and just gave him another bottle of kombucha,” Mark buries his face into his pillow, “I’m so fucking stupid.”

Donghyuck snorts, “yeah you are.”

“God,” Mark whines, his sickened mind working against him to completely remove his brain-to-mouth filter, “he’s really fucking cute, I’m just dumb.”

Donghyuck snickers, “I’m telling the group chat right now and they’re all so fucking mad at you.” Right as he says that, Mark hears someone hitting the dorm room wall next to them.

“Mark you’re a dumbass!” Jaemin’s voice calls, muffled by the wall between them.

“What am I going to do?” Mark says, pouting.

Donghyuck looks up, an evil look on his face. Mark shudders. “Renjun just told us that Yukhei’s gonna be at that one frat, Way-V’s party tomorrow.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Don’t worry.” Donghyuck says, and pats Mark’s head like he’s a dog, “leave it all to us, we’ll get you a boyfriend. We have a plan.”

“But I’m sick,” Mark says and coughs pathetically.

Donghyuck looks at the fridge, “then you might want to eat those grapes.”

  
  


Turns out, Donghyuck wasn’t kidding when he said that they had a plan. And Taeyong might have not been kidding about the grapes, considering that Mark felt much better. Currently, there were five other boys in Mark and Donghyuck’s dorm room, and Mark snacked on a small bowl of green grapes while his friends decimated his closet.

“Why is everything you own so- so-”

“Straight?” Jaemin says, answering Renjun.

“Yeah,” Renjun says, and frowns at the 10th pair of basketball shorts he’s stumbled upon. “Not even Jeno’s this bad.”

“I take offense to that,” Jeno says, the only one out of Mark’s friends who isn’t going through his clothes. Jeno steals a grape from Mark.

“You should,” Donghyuck says. “Chenle, have you found anything?”

Chenle and Jisung look up from where they’re sorting through the bins under Mark’s bed. “Jisung found some jeans that might work.”

“They have rips in them,” Jisung says helpfully, holding up a pair of black skinny jeans.

Donghyuck, Jaemin, and Renjun look at each other. “We can work with that.”

Renjun flips past another jersey hanging in the closet. “Oh wait, what about this?” Renjun holds up an oversized graphic tee with a worn out collar and a light denim jacket.

“Perfect,” Donghyuck says.

Mark is pulled out of his comfortable spot and sat in front of Donghyuck’s desk, various makeup products spilled messily over the top. “Let’s get to work boys.” Jaemin says and rolls up his sleeves.

Mark is crying by the time they finish, Renjun having no regrets over accidentally poking Mark’s eye with eyeliner. “Coward,” Renjun says while dabbing at Mark’s eyes with a tissue. Mark sniffs and Renjun puts the tissue away. “All done.”

Mark looks into the mirror, and is momentarily stunned. Besides his slightly red eye, he looks good. The graphic tee is tucked into the black ripped jeans that elongate his legs, a belt cinching his waist in. The tee is oversized, and hangs effortlessly off of Mark’s shoulder, the collar sinking down to reveal the tops of his collarbones. The jacket—which Donghyuck refused to let him actually wear, instead forcing him to wear it off-the-shoulder like an instagram model for the “aesthetic”— bunched up over Mark’s hands and gave him the appearance of being effortlessly cool. His makeup is dark, and makes his eyes look hooded along with bright highlight and gloss the shimmers in the light when Mark turns. “Holy shit.”

“Holy shit is right,” Jaemin says, “we worked hard on that shit.”

“I look nice,” Mark says.

“We know,” Renjun says, “now move over. The party is in an hour and the rest of us still need to get ready.”

  
  


The music is loud, almost too loud. Mark feels the bass rattle him to his bones, weaving his way through the crowd. He had offered to grab everyone drinks, but now he was suffering in the sea of bodies. There’s too much going on. In the corner of his eyes, a few of the frat bros are obnoxiously cheering as a young looking boy does a kegstand. He finishes victoriously, wiping his mouth as the crowd screams, yelling, “For Drusselstein!” in a light german accent.

Mark turns in the opposite direction, pushing aimlessly before the crowd. However, luck was on his side, because he soon ran into a tall, but very familiar body.

“Woah!” Yukhei yells, accidently spilling beer over a short guy he was talking to. The guy glares and mutters something rude in Thai before leaving. Yukhei turns around to face Mark and Mark is suddenly greeting with Yukhei blatantly staring at him for approximately 20 seconds. “Holy shit, Mark?”

“Yeah.” Mark says, and tugs on his shirt collar. Yukhei’s eyes follow the movements.

“It’s good to see you,” Yukhei says, licking his lips. Mark’s brain short circuits. “Do you uh, wanna get out of here?”

“I’m sorry what?”

“Oh not like that!” Yukhei says, “I meant like out of this area. It’s kind of loud.”

Mark nods, “oh yeah, sure then.”

  
  


Yukhei takes him onto the roof. He’s pushing open a window, and gesturing for Mark to follow. He does. “A few of my friends are in this frat,” Yukhei explains, “I hang out here a lot.” The music thumps beneath them, but a majority of the noise from the party is gone. “So-”

“How’d you like the kombucha?” Mark says quickly.

Yukhei looks confused, “uh, what?”

“The kombucha, the one I sold you,”  _ Please, please stop talking Mark Lee you fucking idiot _ .

“It was fine?”

“Wait, did you just say it was fine? I thought you hated that shit.”

It was Yukhei’s turn to blush, “I may have been saying that to have an excuse to talk to you.”

“Oh,” Mark breathes out and looks down at the shingles. “That’s—that’s nice.”

“I didn’t really bring you up here to talk about kombucha,” Yukhei says, shifting a little closer to Mark. “I kind of came here to ask you about the other thing.”

Mark fiddles with the edge of his shirt. “What about it?”

“I just want to hear your answer.” Yukhei says, and places his hand over Mark’s hand. “Will you go out with me?”

Mark looks up at Yukhei, and sees the way Yukhei stares back. His entire face is hopeful, but Mark can see the underlying worry in Yukhei’s eyes. “Yeah,” he breathes out and the worry disappears immediately.

Yukhei’s face breaks out in a wide grin, and he turns away, his fist flying into the air. “Hell yeah!” he whoops loudly into the night sky.

Mark laughs and smiles at him. Yukhei’s hand encloses Mark’s, threading their fingers together. He can’t help but notice the size difference.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly, “I’ve wanted to hear that for a while.”

“It’s fine,” Mark says, and blushes, “it’s cute.”

“Oh really?” Yukhei smirks, “that’s good. I think you’re cute.”

“Oh?” Mark says back, and their faces lean closer together.

“Yeah,” Yukhei says, and leans down, capturing Mark’s lips in his. Mark feels Yukhei’s smile against his lips, and he knows Yukhei can feel the same. The bass from the music downstairs settles thumps loudly in his ears and the soft press of Yukhei’s lips against him is maddening. Mark reaches back to wrap his hands around the back of Yukhei’s head, Yukhei’s hand reaching up to cup Mark’s face while Mark tugs at his hair.

Suddenly, Yukhei deepens the kiss and his tongue slides between Mark’s lips. It’s slimy, and should be disgusting, but it’s not. Yukhei tastes like beer, and Mark moans, Yukhei’s hands flying down to grip Mark’s waist. He pulls back, a string of saliva connecting their lips.

“You taste like grapes,” Yukhei mutters before leaning down again. His hands pull at Mark’s t-shirt from where it’s tucked into his jeans until his hand can snake under it and rest heavily against Mark’s waist. “Do you wanna-” Mark allows his teeth to tug at Yukhei’s lips and he’s rewarded with a groan. “My roommate isn’t coming back today-”

“Yeah,” Mark sighs as Yukhei’s hands spread across his back, “let’s get out of here.”

  
  


Mark pants, his hands wringing into the sheets of Yukhei’s bed. He looks down, and Yukhei grins at him, pulling away and wiping his mouth.

“You taste like grape juice.”

**Author's Note:**

> [cc](https://curiouscat.me/xuminghaooutsold)   
>  [twitter](https://twitter.com/markleewyd)


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